This undated hand out picture released Tuesday April 21, 2009, by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities shows Pharaonic King Ramses II, right and Geb, god of earth, carved on a wall at one of four recently unearthed new temples in Qantara amidst the 3,000-year-old remains of an ancient fortified city that could have been used to impress foreign delegations visiting Egypt, antiquities authorities announced Tuesday April 21, 2009.

– Archaeologists exploring an old military road in the Sinai have unearthed four new temples amidst the 3,000-year-old remains of an ancient fortified city that could have been used to impress foreign delegations visiting Egypt, antiquities authorities announced Tuesday.

Among the discoveries was the largest mud brick temple found in the Sinai with an area of 70 by 80 meters (77 by 87 yards) and fortified with mud walls 3 meters (10 feet) thick, said Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The find was made in Qantara, 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) east of the Suez Canal. These temples mark the latest discovery by archaeologists digging up the remains of the city on the military road known as "Way of Horus." Horus is a falcon-headed god, who represented the greatest cosmic powers for ancient Egyptians.

The path once connected Egypt to Palestine and is close to present-day Rafah, which borders the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Archaeologist Mohammed Abdel-Maqsoud, chief of the excavation team, said the large brick temple could potentially rewrite the historical and military significance of the Sinai for the ancient Egyptians.

The temple contains four hallways, three stone purification bowls and colorful inscriptions commemorating Ramses I and II. The grandeur and sheer size of the temple could have been used to impress armies and visiting foreign delegations as they arrived in Egypt, authorities said.

The dig has been part of a joint project with the Culture Ministry that started in 1986 to find fortresses along the military road. Hawass said early studies suggested the fortified city had been Egypt's military headquarters from the New Kingdom (1569-1081 B.C.) until the Ptolemaic era, a period lasting about 1500 years.

In a previous find, archaeologists there reported finding the first ever New Kingdom temple to be found in northern Sinai. Studies indicated the temple was built on top of an 18th Dynasty fort (1569-1315 B.C.).

Last year, a collection of reliefs belonging to King Ramses II and King Seti I (1314-1304 B.C.) were also unearthed along with rows of warehouses used by the ancient Egyptian army during the New Kingdom era to store wheat and weapons.

Abdel-Maqsoud said the fortified city corresponded to the inscriptions of the Way of Horus found on the walls of the Karnak Temple in Luxor which illustrated the features of 11 military fortresses that protected Egypt's eastern borders. Only five of them have been discovered to date.

– Archaeologists have unearthed four pharaonic temples in the Sinai peninsula, including one of mud brick with fortified walls that served as an important religious center at the eastern gateway to ancient Egypt.

Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities said on Tuesday the temples dated to the beginning of the rule of Thutmosis II, who reigned from about 1512 BC and was ultimately succeeded by his wife Hatshepsut, among ancient Egypt's most successful female rulers. "The discovery is considered among the biggest discoveries in Sinai and includes the largest fortified Pharaonic temple in Sinai, at 80 meters by 70 meters," it said in a statement.

"It is the only example of a mud brick temple in the New Kingdom era in the (Nile) Delta and Sinai."

It said that the temple was surrounded by walls four meters thick and contained paintings of a number of Egyptian deities, including Horus, the god of the sun.

The statement said the paintings, which also included depictions of Thutmosis II and Ramses II, indicated that the walls of the temple had been brightly painted.

The temple contains three basins for ritual purification and a number of chambers for gods. The statement said it was "an important religious center at Egypt's eastern entrance in Sinai."

In their 3,000-year history, Egypt's Pharaohs often ventured across Sinai to fight Hittites and other civilizations in the area now covered by Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq.

Egypt announced last year it had found in the same area the ancient headquarters of the Pharaonic army which guarded the northeastern borders of Egypt for more than 1,500 years.

– Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed carvings at four ancient temples in the Sinai peninsula which they hope will shed fresh light on one of the most obscure periods of Pharaonic history.

Rare inscriptions on the temples' walls relate to the Hyksos -- Asiatic peoples who invaded Egypt during the 12th dynasty (1991-1802 BC) and ruled for more than a century from their Nile Delta capital, Avaris.

"There is a carving of King Ramses I standing before the god Set, who was worshipped by the Hyksos. This is the first of its kind," archaeologist Mohammed Abdel Maksud, who heads the mission, told AFP on Tuesday.

The Hyksos, whose name means "foreign rulers" in ancient Greek, were so hated that when Egyptians eventually returned to power, they destroyed all Hyksos monuments and records.

The find, including inscriptions relating to an array of other gods and kings, "opens the door to many secrets of that time and could help rewrite Sinai's history," Maksud said.

The inscriptions will be taken immediately to Cairo for analysis, said Maksud, who has been excavating the area since 1986.

The mud-brick temples were built on top of each other over a 1,000-year period spanning the Middle (2134-1569 BC) and New (1570-1070 BC) Kingdoms on a 70 by 80 metre (230 by 262 feet) site just east of the Suez Canal.

They were housed within Fort Tharo, the largest-ever military city from the Pharaonic period, on the edge of the Sinai desert, part of a series of forts that stretched along the so-called Horus Road to the Gaza border.

Archaeologists stumble upon largest New Kingdom temple ever discovered in Egypt

Cairo, April 27, 2009(ANI):

Archeologists have uncovered the remains of what is believed to be the largest New Kingdom temple ever discovered in Egypt.

According to a report in Al-Ahram Weekly, the temple was found by an Egyptian archaeological mission at Tel-Hebua, known in Pharaonic times as Tharo, the area from which the ancient Egyptian army embarked on military campaigns along Egypt’s eastern borders.

The temple, which covers an area of 80×70 metres, is built of mud brick decorated with paintings.

It consists of four rectangular halls containing a total of 34 columns, three limestone purification basins, and a number of secondary chapels, suggesting that the temple was an important religious centre on Egypt’s eastern front.

The site is heavily fortified and surrounded by a four-metre-thick wall.

On the east and west of the site are two groups of storehouses consisting of 13 rooms each, which probably date to the reigns of Seti I, Ramses II and Seti II.

They contain thousands of inscriptions and seal impressions of the three kings.

One of them is particularly important, points out mission director Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud. It depicts Ramses II before the god Set, patron deity of the Hyksos capital Avaris, now known as Tel Al-Dabaa, some 50 kilometers from Tel Hebua in the eastern Nile Delta.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), described the discovery as the most important to date in Sinai.

REMAINS of the largest ancient Egyptian temple yet to be found in Sinai have been uncovered in Qantara, reports Nevine El-Aref.

At Tel-Hebua, known in Pharaonic times as Tharo, the area from which the ancient Egyptian army embarked on military campaigns along Egypt's eastern borders, an Egyptian archaeological mission stumbled upon what is believed to be the largest New Kingdom temple ever discovered.

The temple, which covers an area of 80x70 metres, is built of mud brick decorated with paintings. It consists of four rectangular halls containing a total of 34 columns, three limestone purification basins, and a number of secondary chapels, suggesting that the temple was an important religious centre on Egypt's eastern front.

The site is heavily fortified and surrounded by a four-metre-thick wall. Paintings featuring Horus, Hathor, Tefnut, Montu and Renenutet were unearthed within the temple walls along with others showing kings Tuthmosis II and Ramses II.

On the east and west of the site are two groups of storehouses consisting of 13 rooms each, which probably date to the reigns of Seti I, Ramses II and Seti II. They contain thousands of inscriptions and seal impressions of the three kings. One of them is particularly important, points out mission director Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud. It depicts Ramses II before the god Set, patron deity of the Hyksos capital Avaris, now known as Tel Al-Dabaa, some 50 kilometres from Tel Hebua in the eastern Nile Delta.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), described the discovery as the most important to date in Sinai.